DP: CROSS SECTOR PARTNERSHIPS AND DEVELOPMENT

I will proceed my discussion with the same focus on ‘thinking globally and acting locally’  for us to achieve the best out of our development agenda. After the strategies, i was again interested in this new development phenomenon of  ” Partnerships”; it also has a lot of definitions but all of them are driving at one point. For the sake of my discussion we will focus on “Cross Sector Partnerships” which  are alliances between two or more parties from different sectors of society – for example business, government and NGOs – who come together in order to understand common interests and find innovative ways of solving the shared challenges of sustainable development. Cambridge Programme for Industry (CPI).

As we already know, partnerships are not easy to handle for different reasons depending on the situation. Some of the problems are;

Asymmetric power relations and conflict of interests may result in the overtaking of a partnership’s operation and objectives of one of the partners leading to outcomes that increase that partner’s benefits at the expense of more general welfare (McQuaid, 2000: 23-24). Conflict of interests in a partnership may also result in a situation where the collaboration is more or less dissolved during the process and a greater separation of responsibilities established in which each of the actors involved concentrate on their own task (Klijn and Teisman, 2003: 142). In such cases of partnership capture or greater separation of responsibilities a situation of collaborative inertia, and not collaborative advantage, prevails (Huxham, 1996: 4)..

In networks like cross-sector partnerships a main hindrance to collaboration may be significant differences in the ideologies and values of private and public actors (Waddock, 1989: 84). Jacobs (1992) has described the public and private sectors as two ethical systems with different moral syndromes. The public sector is characterized by the guardian syndrome, and the private sector by the commercial syndrome (Jacobs, 1992: 32, cited in Klijn and Teisman, 2003: 142). This difference in moral syndromes implies among other things differences in problem definitions which may be very difficult to reconcile. Whereas the public sector is oriented towards public objectives and devoted to a public cause the private sector is driven by profit maximization and devoted to consumer preferences (Klijn and Teisman, 2003: 143)

Despite the hussles in partnerships, i still feel they are still a good weapon for us to achieve Development. As someone coming from a developing country, i have seen some good results from the partnerships; i noted that there is more achieved from partnerships than when the same is done through indivdual organisation or sector. However, there is need to make sure that every partner understands the objective of the partnership but also what is their responsibility. On the other hand, identification of who to be in the partnership is something which needs attention. I feel there is need to consider how the partners will complement each othe since the aim is to get maximum benefits from the partnership.

Some of the benefits are, saving of resources i.e on capacity building, administration cost since the other partners will bring in these into the partnership. Most of the organisations, Government, or Civil society might not have all the required skills and expertise to implement development projects, this most of the time affects the budgets but also the time for the project implenmentation. If the different sectors go into a good partnership, these problems can be solved and enable them achieve the maximum results. Developing countries need to make sure that the little resources they have are being used effectively and hence partneships can be one way of effective use of resources.

The other good thing i like about partneships is that they can sometimes bring in accountability since everyone is answerable to the other. However, i feel this works well in a partnership where there is good cordination but also mutual respect for each other.  In Cross sector partnerships; most of the times, where there is respect for each other, there there can be some improvement or creation of good relationships between the Government, Private Sector and the Civil Society which most of the times act as the watchdogs.

It is important for partners from different sectors to remain flexible and not tied to “business as usual,”. Compliance, responsiveness and transparency are key to a successful collaboration that has accountable partners at its core, said Stott.

Roles and responsibilities obviously will change over the lifetime of the partnership and often key individuals will be the glue that keeps things together.

On the other hand the length of time the partnership will run should also be an issue to consider.  Depending on the objectvies of the partnership, it will be very important to specifically indicate in the contract, the length of the partnership and when to review. I personally feel partnerships should be forever with periodic reviewing, this will ensure maximum and sustainable solutions.

Sources

http://www.unrisd.org/unrisd/website/events.nsf/

1 comentario / 31 Dec 2011 por Tabithah Mkandawire Kaluwa
IMSD /

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